O2 Broadband

[Mike]

We are currently switching to O2 Broadband, basically because we checked on Money Supermarket and the O2 deal was about £15 per month cheaper than our current BT package and after a single phone call I realised that we could be getting 14.5mb broadband rather than the 6.7mb we are currently experiencing.

So we checked the reviews. 9 / 10 user satisfaction and fastest actual broadband award. Both very good (in fact the user satisfaction is one of the only highly rated ones on the site).

Ordered and it has gone very smoothly so far. They are keeping me up to date with progress via text to my O2 phone, they have been prompt and nice on the phone when I wanted to speak to them and I should be getting the new wireless router tomorrow which is two days following the order. The full activation should take place next week on 22 July 2008 and then will be able to give a full run down.

At this mid point however I would have to say the service has been and the speed has been . Very impressive start to my experience with 02.

My only criticism of 02 so far is their 3G network seems a little bit intermittent in Didsbury. It is fine in Stockport but the variety of service is very strange. I wonder what it will be like in town.

[stimpsonslostson]

I can quite believe that O2 would be good.

O2 have always been good to deal with- I mentioned elsewhere the great deal bex got on her contract phone. I'm with them for my phone and haven't had any issues at all. I especially like that whenever I switch my sim into a new phone (which happens quite a lot) they immediately send the correct MMS settings to me!


T-Mobile were also excellent in customer care, just a shame I could never get a signal on my phone inside a building (even after trying several handsets)- so I left!

Stay away from Orange (for anything)- their customer service is the worst I've ever dealt with! I know loads of former wanadoo customers who have left since orange took over.

Our BTVision package has been up and running for a week now... very impressive. Easy to set up and use, including a clever broadband socket thing allowing us to beam broadband to a plug socket using mains cables
We can record 2channels at once. We've got a 160gig recorder for 80hrs recording.
I knocked a star off for the minor delivery issue (which was sorted by 2 phone calls), and the fact that it can be slow to boot up if you turn the plug off- which being ecomentallists we do (unless we're taping that night).

Can't comment on the OnDemand service yet as we've never used it, but if its as good as the rest of the package then we can't complain!
p

[Mike]

Weirdly I was grumbling about the 3g but now I am on the bus the signal is great! I guess the old building was cutting out the signal and causing grief. Not only that but my number ported over earlier and I am back online as normal, I will be glad not to have to carry two phones around now.

[John Knight]

At least you're on your way home. I still inside my contracted hours so am still submerged in a sea of grey.

[Mike]

I think I have stumbled across why the BT broadband is so expensive. They are only allowed to keep 10% of their profits. . . . no wonder the cost is so high. BBC are reporting that BT are going to be pumping £1.5 billion into new fibre optic cables to provide Broadband Speeds of between 40 and 60mb which would be sufficient to stream a HD film whilst other family members were playing games online etc. The investment will only go ahead if OFCOM actually allows BT to keep more than 10% of its capital investment given the uncertain nature of the investment and if it will pay off in time.

They will only be in by 2012 so we have plenty of time to watch this space.

[Mike]

The O2 router arrived yesterday without any hickups. They are maintaining their rating here at the moment. Needed to ring their customer services department yesterday to confirm that my old number (that replaced the temporary O2 number at purchase) was registered against the O2 broadband package. When through a phone selection system and went straight through to a sales person (I messed up and got the wrong department). Inter-department referral and straight through to operation number two who sorted it out. Total conversation? 2 minutes. Including the error on my part.

[Mike]

It is online now. Final results?

Amazing. The set up was really quick, the speed was quick and I am very pleased to see an almost double in speed and performance. Not quite getting the 14.5mb promised but never the less very impressive improvement. My internet loads pages very quickly now too.

The speed has practically doubled on O2 and is blisteringly fast! The longest part of that 10 minute set up was dismantling the BT box (6 minutes), 2 minutes to take the O2 out of its packaging and plugging in, 2 minutes for it to go through it's set up sequence. Wicked.

Oh and just as a side note, here is the set up instructions for the PC and Mac version of the Broadband. Nuff said.

Once you have heard from us, you'll be raring to go. And the rest is easy.
- Insert the CD
- It should start automatically
- Follow the simple instructions on Screen

If the CD does not run automatically please follow these steps
1. Click start button and choose my computer. If my computer is not available double-click on My Computer on your desktop.
2. Right-click your DVD / CD drive and select explore
3. Double click setup. This will start the O2 Broadband installation.

and it goes on and on and on and I have become bored with typing (there are three pages of instructions). Then Apple Macs

Apple Macs
You should set up O2 broadband on a Mac without using the Set up CD.
- Unplug your telephone and connect a broadband filter to the phone socket
- Plug your telephone into the socket market Phone on the broadband filter.
- Connect one end of the Grey DSL cable into the DSL socket on the Broadband filter. Connect the other end to the grey socket on the O2 wireless box II
- Use the ethernet cable to connect one of the yellow sockets on the O2 wireless box II to your Mac network port
- Plug in the power supply and switch it on.

Wait for the DSL and Internet lights on the O2 wireless box II to turn green. They you should be able to use the internet on your mac.